They never expected it

When I visited the HIV-infected in Shanxi and Jilin provinces, the words I frequently heard were "I didn't expect that I could be infected ... I thought the virus something just for those 'bad people'."

Xia Shuqing, an HIV carrier in Soudengzhan Township, Jilin, recalled her despair facing isolation. "I am not afraid of death -- after all, sooner or later I am going to die. Better to die early, less humiliation," she said.

Facing prejudice, just 10 percent of those who suspected they were infected were willing to be tested, while the majority deliberately kept themselves in the dark, said Zhang Lei, a program officer with the UN Children's Fund who has worked in the field of HIV-AIDS for years.

Zhang vividly remembered a phone call she received from a woman on the verge of hysteria.

"She said she had betrayed her husband once and had sex with an American-Chinese, and she claimed that she had developed symptoms of AIDS, and sores also appeared on her sons' bodies," Zhang recalled.

The caller, whom Zhang considered well-educated, wept, yelled and screamed.

"I don't know whether she got a test after all and if she was really infected, but the case is by no means exceptional," she said.

Hoping for tolerance

To check the spread of the deadly virus, we have to check our attitude. Just as Meng Lin said, "it is merely a disease. Why couldn't we call a disease a disease?" There are ways everyone can help.

Government officials need to acknowledge that the existence of HIV/AIDS might be a tragedy, but it is not a shame.

Indeed, the Chinese government has made great progress over the years, as can be seen from President Hu Jintao shaking hands with the infected to the tour of Wu Yi, then health minister, to an AIDS village.

It can also be seen in the "four exempt and one care" policy drawn up in 2003 to ensure the HIV-infected in rural areas get free medicine and regular check-ups, and in the annual census by the Ministry of Health of the HIV-infected, which stood at 700,000last year.

But in some intermediate-level governments, officials still consider the disease an obstacle to development, or perhaps their own careers.

As Meng Lin said: "I am afraid of AIDS day." In November, journalists vied to interview him and his friends; the rest of the year, HIV carriers are largely forgotten by the media.

And it's one thing for media reports to warn people about drug abuse and unprotected sex. But it would be better for reporters to focus on the real physical and mental problems of the infected, and to urge society to treat them and their families better.

The public has a role, too: it can treat the infected as friends. This doesn't mean sympathy or mercy, which they don't need. They are just like you and me.